Canadian Frédérique Lambert's march to a Junior Worlds title hit a snag Wednesday at the 23rd International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Junior Racquetball Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as she lost her last game in Girls U18 pool play to Maria Jose Vargas of Bolivia, 15-9, 12-15, 11-9. In the elimination round Thursday, Lambert faces Cristina Ana Velez of Ecuador.
One of the matches of the day was between Josue Perdomo of Dominican Republic and Cesar Barragan of Mexico in Boys U12. It was on one of the end courts, which has a glass side wall (this one has glass on the right side) and some bleachers on that side.
The home crowd was pumped up after Perdomo won the second game to force a tie-breaker. It was close in game three but Barragan got to 10 first, which led the Mexican supporters to chant "UNO! UNO! UNO!" indicating there was one point left to go.
However, Barragan didn't get that point, as Perdomo got the serve back tied it at 10-10 - causing the Dominican fans to chants "UNO!" themselves and then Perdomo won it to the jubilation of the Dominican crowd. It was a great match with the boys - 12 year olds! - crushing the ball and throwing themselves all over the court to keep the rallies going. Good times.
Not so good times for American Jacob Matthews. The IRF rules are that you can leave the service box as soon as you've hit the ball, which sounds like a great idea to enable you to get into center court position after serving.
Matthews was taking full advantage of this in his match against Canadian Matthew Swaine. After dropping game one to Swaine, Matthews came back and won game two and then came back again in the tie-breaker after Swaine had got to 10 first.
During his comeback, Matthews a left handed player was hitting a high Z lob to the left side - so to the righthanded Swaine's backhand. Matthews did this again at 10-10, but as he was leaving the box looking back to see how Swaine was going to receive the ball, the ball hit Matthews. Side out.
Swaine got the serve back, and won the match with the ensuing three shot rally. It was an "oh my god!" moment that won't be soon forgotten by those who were there.
The 23rd Junior World Racquetball Championships continue through the week with the finals on Saturday. Note, there is live streaming from Santo Domingo for all 8 courts via the IRF website.
Follow the bouncing ball....
Thursday, July 28, 2011
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1 comment:
Why aren't the elimation draws posted on the IRF website? And no results from today. What's going on? Hate to repeat myself but R2 Sports would be a great idea right about now.
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